Creative E-MU XM7 (look inside)

zieglj01

zieglj01

Audioholic Spartan
Some nice looking speakers with a decent/nice build quality -- the fit and finish is nice with what looks like 5/8 inch MDF -- they have corner bracing inside and a huge shielded magnet on the 5-1/4 inch woofer and a plastic looking heat-sink on the 1 inch soft dome tweeter. There is a hollow like sound with the door-knock test, but it does not ring as some other speakers. The polly-batten is glued to the woofer magnet shield and the internal wiring is covered with foam to keep the wires silent. This is not a $100 looking speaker. It looks better than the Pioneer BS22 and the Sony Core bookshelf. The crossover has 2 core inductors, 2 poly caps, and 1 resistor. They even supplied some 16 awg wire, and not that cheap 22 awg that a lot of lower cost speakers tend to have. They came out around 2015, and marketing in the USA seems to be weak. They made them to work with their Sound Blaster X7 amp or your home receiver or amp.

The sound is fairly good and about the same league as the Pioneer and Sony and tends to favor the Q Acoustics 2020i speakers. They are somewhat bumpy in the frequency response, but the sound is clean and clear and not really coarse or grainy. They are somewhat on the bright side, but not edgy and sharp like some budget horn speakers. They do lack some upper bass punch and tend to roll off around 90 hz. Voices can be slightly nasal and the sound slightly hollow at times. Good for budget friendly desk-top use, surround speakers, bedroom, kids room or a garage. They have some decent dynamics for Movies/TV/Gaming.

On sale at Amazon and the Creative website for $99 and the regular list is $269, but still selling for over $200 at some sights

Here is a picture slide-show
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=gallery;area=slideshow;album=29323;start=190531;size=large
 
Last edited:
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
Cool!
I like the look of them!
How did you determine that the tweeter had a plastic heatsink?
That is really weird, but perhaps you can mix minerals into plastic to make it into a thermal conductor?
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Cool!
I like the look of them!
How did you determine that the tweeter had a plastic heatsink?
That is really weird, but perhaps you can mix minerals into plastic to make it into a thermal conductor?
Agreed, a plastic heatsink would be strange. Are you sure its not aluminum? I have seen heatsinks of that shape, but they were all aluminum.
 
zieglj01

zieglj01

Audioholic Spartan
Cool!
I like the look of them!
How did you determine that the tweeter had a plastic heatsink?
That is really weird, but perhaps you can mix minerals into plastic to make it into a thermal conductor?
It has to be some mixed minerals -- but it is not metal, and no ringing when you tap it with something like a screw driver. At least with this speaker, they did more than just slap it together
 
zieglj01

zieglj01

Audioholic Spartan
Agreed, a plastic heatsink would be strange. Are you sure its not aluminum? I have seen heatsinks of that shape, but they were all aluminum.
I am checking it -- it feels like some type of hard plastic like material to me -- the one on the Boston E60 was more like aluminum
 
zieglj01

zieglj01

Audioholic Spartan
Well I guess it is an aluminum heat-sink -- but it sill looks plastic like -- I can not find any info for plastic tweeter heat-sinks
 
zieglj01

zieglj01

Audioholic Spartan
Upon further checking and being more awake, it is an aluminum heat-sink to me.

And in doing more listening, it will be an acquired taste for some as they do have a somewhat forward and bright push -- but for those who like to EQ, you can adjust them some. I can actually handle/listem to these better than the Q Acoustics speakers and the NHT SuperOne 2.1
 
killdozzer

killdozzer

Audioholic Samurai
Man, they're really pretty. They remind me of a beatuful KEF monitor, the RDM series:
1550254959994.png
 
zieglj01

zieglj01

Audioholic Spartan
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